


Of Wealth and Profits

by she_elf4



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Angst, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Super Powers AU, minor depictions of violence, oc based on quark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:20:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27196393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/she_elf4/pseuds/she_elf4
Summary: Quark isn't what he seems. "He" is actually a half-Augment girl, hiding from the Federation. However, caught in the middle of the Federation's attempts at expanding to Bajor and later their war with the Dominion, will she continue to elude their grasp?
Kudos: 1
Collections: Trektober 2020





	Of Wealth and Profits

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure where this idea came from, but it's mostly just crack treated seriously. It wasn't originally supposed to be quite so angsty, but then I got ideas from Into Darkness. This is one of my first serious attempts at an original character, though, so I'd like to know how I did.

"Shut it! Don't you make a sound! You're a bad girl, just like your dad, you don't get to complain!" Looking into the angry scientist's mind, Padma could see that he thought she was evil. Just like the man she'd been artificially created from, Khan Noonien Singh, had been. Her mother's Ferengi heritage, purchased from a dealer, wasn't much better thought of. She kept as quiet as she could as the rod came down on her back again. 

Padma wasn't sure when she first realized that not everyone could read minds like she could. She also didn't remember just when she actively began to hide it, but it came in handy for fooling and outsmarting the Federation scientists in charge of her. Little known fact about the Augments of old, they'd had mild ESP, just another one of their many enhancements. Padma thought her Ferengi heritage had further enhanced it, larger brain and all. 

The beating suddenly stopped, the scientist quickly pulled her shirt back down. A second later, Admiral McCoy entered the room and gave them a bright smile. He had been in charge of the Project for Advanced Detection and Management of Ailments at a Federation facility that had, officially, been researching new treatments for genetic diseases. Unofficially, they were also testing Augments' mental abilities, via old-fashioned cloning techniques.

The other scientists in the building quickly made excuses and left, leaving her alone with the Admiral. Taking a deep breath and pushing down the recurring guilt at using her powers against the only person who cared, Padma asked, "Hey, could I maybe spend a couple of hours by myself? Without any surveillance?"

McCoy looked dubious. "I dunno, you're not really supposed to be completely unsupervised, you know that."

"Please, Uncle Bones?" She tried a pleading tone. "I just want a little alone time."

"Now, come on, darlin, I've already given you more computer access than you're supposed to have," he said. She could tell he was faltering.

"And I haven't done anything bad," she shot back, making her eyes bigger and her lip wobble just so. It really wasn't much of an act, her nearly unlimited library access had introduced her to the concept of 'slave.' She quickly realized that that's exactly what she was, that was the real reason why most of the Federation scientists had no qualms about hurting her. 

"Well, all right. But don't get me into trouble, now." Padma really did feel bad about breaking that promise, but she was tired of hurting. She was thirteen when she first began living on her own, always at the fringes of society.  
____

The first time Padma met her mother, she was fourteen. It had taken her the better part of a year to track down the Ferengi woman. She'd finally done it through her older half-brother, Quark. She had just gotten off of a shuttle she'd stowed away on, had seen him standing at the terminal. "So you 're this half-Hew-mon girl, then?" he'd asked, and quickly herded her away and into another ship. He'd barely said a word to her after that. Probing his mind, Padma could see that he was an ass, sleazy, and a very traditional Ferengi, but had a good streak deep down. She went with him without complaint. 

Two days later, they finally reached Ferenginar. He herded her to a nice looking house. Once inside, he began reciting a list of rules for her to follow, to be a proper 'feeee-male.' In the middle of a sentence, a blaster shot rang out and Quark slumped over. 

Their shared mother grinned at her. "Oh, don't look at me like some shocked lobeling. I remember that deal my husband made, I know how good your brain is supposed to be. You're too good to waste on stupid, out-of-date Ferengi traditions. Why, with your brain, we could be richer than the Grand Nagus! Now, go to the second room on the left and change into some of Quark's clothes." The woman made a shooing motion. As Padma stared at Quark's smouldering back, she shrank back from her mother. This was the first time she'd ever seen someone else hurt. She quickly wiped the tears away before her mother could see.

She watched as her mother used the latest technology to create a very lifelike mask, a perfect recreation of her newly late son's face and head. "Didn't I tell you to get changed? We have to keep this secret, and he's expected somewhere this evening!" her mother snapped over her shoulder. Padma reluctantly went to Quark's room.

A week later, the fourteen-year-old was running her late brother's bar. Thankfully, Quark had left extensive financial records, and their mother was only a call away.  
____

"So, you were going to toss me out an airlock!" Rom, Padma's other half-brother, jeered. She could see the memory of the real Quark saying it, plenty of times. She'd also seen, plenty of times, Rom's expectations of hearing the all-too-common threat again, and again, and again.

"I never meant it!" That was the absolute truth. She'd only ever said it because Rom had come to expect it, to the point that he didn't even fear it as a genuine threat anymore.

"Well, I do! Rom's, nice name for a bar, don't you think?" Rom continued to jeer at her through the glass. She could tell he genuinely meant to kill her. Padma was terrified. Not even the scientists had ever had thoughts like that. 

Rom's hand hovered over the airlock controls. Padma knew her time was up, she'd have to use her ESP to shove them away. Just then, an old, reedy voice called out, "Release him!" They all looked as the Grand Nagus came, his personal servant and Odo trailing behind. Odo quickly passed Zek and released Padma. 

Padma sighed in relief. She silently laughed at the confusion in Rom's and Krax's minds; she knew it had been a setup. She hadn't bothered to probe for the details, but she'd played along nonetheless in the hope that he'd remember 'Quark' fondly. She continued silently laughing at Zek berating them: "You don't grab power. You accumulate it quietly, without anyone noticing!" Krax's confusion was evident, even to the non-ESPers trailing Zek. "It's like talking to a Klingon!" the Nagus's wheedy voice rang out in indignation at his son. 

She quietly trailed behind, making her way back to the bar. That had been way too close, but at least she'd gotten something out of it. If Grand Nagus Zek's opinion of her ever faltered, at least she had the motherload of all blackmail against him. He'd appointed a half-breed female as the Grand Nagus, however short of a time it had been. The thought warmed the icy feeling Rom's betrayal had left in her heart. She was beginning to dislike Ferengi.  
____

It was Padma's recently gained fifteenth year, and the station was ready to blow. Proverbially speaking, of course. Ever since The Circle had made their first official move, the panic began setting in; Padma could almost taste it in the stale, recycled air. She could see it in the tense set of the Jemja seller's shoulders, in the furtive glances between the other wanderers like herself. She could hear it practically screaming from their minds. People were desperate to get off the station, many of them were already thinking about stowing away, fighting their way on, or flat out killing someone for their seat. 

Standing by Rom, Padma happened upon an idea. One that the real Quark would have been proud of. The best part was, it would keep a lid on things for a while, hopefully long enough to buy Sisko the time he needed to get control of the situation: make people THINK they'd gotten an escape by selling non-existent tickets. 

"No, I'm not selling my seat, just to fill your pockets!" Rom protested when she explained to him.

"You're not going to sell your seat. We'll both make it off, but with as much gold-pressed-latinum as we can carry!" she insisted. Rom finally warmed up to it. 

Later, as she sat around an air vent eating particularly rank Starfleet combat rations, she supposed she should have expected Rom's betrayal. After all, he'd done it before when the Grand Nagus came to visit. She would hate him if she didn't know that his actions were really aimed at Quark. It was then, sitting in that cramped space, that she realized just how deep over her head she really was. It was also when she began to hate her mother for throwing her into this lion's den in the first place.  
____

During her sixteenth year, Padma decided to hire a new Dabbo Girl. She stared at the new hire, a Bajoran woman, sitting across from her. The woman expected an inappropriate advance, Padma could clearly see it in her mind. Her ESP came in handy when impersonating her brother. "Your first job duty is to give me Oomox, and make it good." It didn't do anything for Padma, of course, but she had to keep Rule 223 in mind. Other Ferengi did, rather obsessively in Padma's opinion. In fact, at times, they seemed to keep score with each other.

"Absolutely not! I signed on to be a Dabbo Girl, not to be your personal slave!" the woman cried, full of indignation. Padma could also feel a certain sense of triumph at having been right.

"But look at the contract. It says you have to perform to my satisfaction. You signed it. Anything I say is part of your job." The woman's indignation rose exponentially.

"We'll see," she growled out and stalked off. Half an hour later, Padma got a royal chewing out from Sisko. That should keep him pleased for a while, now to take care of Odo...as she ran around, concocting various schemes to fulfill people's expectations of Quark, she found that it was quite exhausting to be someone else.  
____

Padma was seventeen when the Grand Nagus declared war on Bajor. Shortly after, she found herself waking up in the prisoner's barracks at the shout of the guards. Getting up from her cot after another too-short night, she let herself get lost in thought. She could remember Kira demanding her help, but honestly, she had a feeling the Nagus's actions were more about what happened in the wormhole than anything to do with profits, but without him in front of her, she couldn't tell for sure. Either way, her own situation was far too precarious to risk a disagreement with the Grand Nagus. In return, Kira had enjoyed watching Padma as she'd been arrested by the Bajoran government for being Ferengi. 

Soon, they were all being shoved out into the yard. Staring out at the frozen wasteland of Gallitep, there was nothing to do but think, and work. Work, and think. She found herself thinking about all the vitriol she'd faced over the years she'd run her dead brother's bar, all the careless mistakes and near misses she'd had, in spite of her enhanced abilities. The time she'd nearly killed Jadzia had been a bad one, one of many. The man's voice chilled her to this day: "I don't want the girl, I want Dax." No matter how deeply she tried to probe, there was always something to miss. No matter how much she could slow or stop someone mid-attack, there was always someone else who slipped her attention. And nobody really liked Ferengi. 

Padma followed the bleak line of cold, tired Ferengi as they were made to march around the yard. She hadn't really blamed anyone for not liking her, at first. After all, they couldn't know she was only Quark's half sister or only half Ferengi, and Quark hadn't been all that likeable to begin with. But now, as she desperately tried to protect Rom from the ruthless Bajoran guards, she found she was beginning to resent it. 

Just then, Rom stumbled and fell. "On your feet, you big-eared freak," one of the guards snarled, picking Rom up and shoving him back onto his feet. It didn't last long. He collapsed again, the weeks of too much work and cold, and not enough food and sleep having taken their toll. 

The guard raised his baton to start beating Rom, when Padma had had enough. With a cry of "Leave him alone!" she leaped onto the guard's back. Of course, supposedly being a full-blooded Ferengi, she couldn't fight back too much. As the guards began beating her, her last thought was that yes, she was really beginning to hate Bajorans.  
____

Padma was eighteen when Bashier was outed as an Augment. She'd been behind the bar, pouring Morn a drink. Some Starfleet officers had come in, talking furtively. Obviously, she'd listened in. "I can't believe I actually trusted him!" the man had said.

"Yes, I know!" the woman had answered. "I don't think it's right, another Khan, getting an important assignment like this."

"I can tell you one thing, I'm not going to sickbay when he's in anymore. I'll just wait for one of the Bajoran doctors," the man said with a huff.

"Me neither," the woman agreed. "Dr. Bashier should be sent to a penal colony." Padma could remember the utter shock she'd felt. She'd been so shocked she'd spilled Morn's drink and had to replace it. She also felt a little shame, she should probably have seen it. Of course, she'd never had reason to probe the doctor's mind, changeling incident aside--something else she remembered with shame. She'd never gone past surface thoughts of needing to please and to fit in, and those were pretty common. She spent the next several hours dodging various betting pools, all centered around Bashier's status as an Augment. 

Now, she was sitting in front of a computer in her quarters, hacking into top-secret Federation databases. With a furtive mental look around, she typed in the final command and the database opened like a drunk man's wallet. What she saw chilled her. Here before her, was an Augment Registry. Opening it up, she browsed the names. Robert Aaron, non-government employment, under surveillance. Susan Abbney, Starfleet medical personnel, under surveillance. Makoto Abe, incarcerated for suspected extremist attitude, location classified. Padma opened the file. Reading through the included incident report, she'd been arrested for relieving her commanding officer of duty and refusing a direct order, which was firing on an unarmed vessel of Dominion design. The more files Padma read, the more she realized that Augments were second-class citizens, treated as a threat and blamed for anything that went wrong wherever they went. 

She continued the study for weeks, file after file showing modern Augments, created by overly-demanding parents and overreaching scientists, mostly peaceful and faithfully serving. Almost all of them died in some prison colony or another. The very last file she read, the oldest, made her blood boil: the charter for her father's empire, hauntingly similar to the Federation's own charter, displayed with the reports of the coup that resulted in the near extinction of the Augment race. 

In spite of hating most of the scientists at the lab she'd grown up in, Padma hadn't hated the entire Federation. She'd assumed it was a fringe group, not representative of the Federation at large. Only now, looking at the cold, hard numbers, did she realize that the entire Federation was built upon the blood of her own people. They were hypocrites and liars, nothing more. She began making plans, plans that would make her dead brother Quark green with envy.  
____

Padma was nineteen when the perfect conditions to bring her plan into fruition appeared. A chime sounded on the computer behind the counter at the bar, filling her with elation and dread. With a furtive look around, she saw that no one had paid it any mind. She looked at a solid year's worth of work right in front of her. It was a thing of beauty: while the Federation didn't use physical currency except with foreign nations, they did have a credit system that still worked via the rules of commerce. Using this basic premise, she'd devised a scheme to bankrupt the Federation High Council. She could remember months of enticing them with bad investments, tricking them into deals that, if they'd paid attention, they would have seen were ruinous beneath the surface. Rule 10 had proven very useful in this venture. Now, all she had to do was call in all the Federation's debts, of which she already owned a considerable amount, thanks to the side deals she'd mostly found from mentally probing Odo's suspicions. The Federation would fall like a house of cards.

Looking at the display, she hesitated to put in the last command. After all, the Dominion War was in full swing. The Federation's best and worst traits were on display in their full glory, and so were the Dominion's. One thing was obvious, the Dominion intended to enslave all solids as they had the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar. Which was the correct choice, equal oppression to all, or just the oppression of her own people? Was the pain of the Augment race so much more important than the freedom and independence of the rest of the quadrant? While she hated the Federation, and the Bajorans, and the Ferengi, did they really deserve to go through what she had? In the end, she sent all the information to her private computer and tried to get back to bartending. 

In the days that followed, Padma began to watch her father on the Enterprise's old records obsessively. On the surface, he seemed ruthless: "You're in bed, holding a knife to your doctor's throat..." "Tyranny, sir? Or an attempt to unify Humanity..." "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee, for hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee." Such a man should hardly approve of his daughter's sudden urge to show mercy. But digging deeper, looking at the raw numbers which, after all, is where Ferengi truly excelled, a different picture emerged. It showed a man who, even under the extremely precarious situation he found himself in at Kirk's mercy, didn't actually kill anyone, his attempt on Kirk aside. He didn't even kill the guards outside his door. Even in his second encounter with the Enterprise, only two people died, and one of those came back. And as Kirk himself admitted, "There were no massacres under his rule..." Neither the dominion nor the Federation could say as much.

Looking at her year of hard work, Padma finally decided that now was not the time. She stored the information in a back file under an obscure name, with as many restrictions as she could put on it. Then, she got up from her computer and got ready for another day of bartending and hidden spying. Hopefully, this chance wouldn't sour once the war ended. And, she reflected, she had still gained something useful, in that the Federation's money pits showed where the missing Augments were likely being kept. In the meantime, she started studying martial arts and battle tactics...


End file.
